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		<header>
			<h1>Clog</h1>
			<p>Day 01125: <time>Thursday, 2018 April 05</time></p>
		</header>
<section id="Minetest">
	<h2>Minetest log</h2>
	<p>
		The effects of <code>drop_hack</code> have now been implemented in the Minequest Modpack.
	</p>
	<p>
		With how the developer I spoke with on <abbr title="Internet Relay Chat">IRC</abbr> was talking yesterday, it sounded like my bug report might not be taken seriously.
		It seemed that they believed there wasn&apos;t cause for symlinks to be used in world directories, so the behaviour of using them there was undefined.
		I got what I got, but there was no reason to fix the code to avoid other people having the same happen to them.
		However, this morning, I found two developers had joined the conversation on the bug report page, excluding one that simply marked it as a bug and categorised it.
		The first called out the lead developer, saying they&apos;d discussed this with them before.
		It&apos;s a <strong>*known*</strong> bug (though probably a forgotten bug)!
		The next found the exact cause of the bug and labelled the bug as high priority.
		There&apos;s a known fix, and it sounds relatively simple!
		I&apos;d probably write up the patch myself if I had any clue what I&apos;m doing in C++.
		I&apos;m maintaining hope that this&apos;ll be repaired by the next stable release, though I&apos;m not sure when that would be.
	</p>
	<p>
		I&apos;d hoped not to restart the world again, but between the revised mechanics of <code>renew</code> and the development of <code>minequest</code>, I think I&apos;m going to anyway.
		The better <code>renew</code> mechanics mean that stone isn&apos;t the only material I can acquire in large quantities while building the tunnel, provided I have a steady source of tools to wear out as I go.
		I&apos;ve already started building up the walls of the tunnel in stone though.
		I&apos;ve got to tear all that out anyway.
		I think I&apos;ve figured out how to reduce tool wear in <code>minequest</code>, so I should be able to drag out my tool usage for a while, and once I&apos;ve made enough progress, I shouldn&apos;t need to wear out tools at all any more.
		Starting over will also clean out the database of the newly-bogus key/value pairs.
		The tracking of drops without a player is getting in the way of <code>minequest</code> development, so I&apos;m removing it.
		Besides, that tracking was added to try to deal with other issues in Minetest Game that I&apos;ve since fixed in <code>renew</code>.
		Tracking unclaimed drops was always beyond the scope of <code>minestats</code>, and should never have been added.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="IRA">
	<h2><abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> issues</h2>
	<p>
		Today, the person in charge of out franchise dropped by the store, so I talked to them about the issues I&apos;ve been having with the <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people.
		It turns out the <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people lied to me.
		They don&apos;t have any of my money at all, as the franchise owner hasn&apos;t done what needs to be done to allow the person in charge to set up the sending of money to the <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people.
		Anyway, they said they&apos;d make sure the <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people had my propper informarion, because they think that&apos;s the problem.
		I don&apos; think it is though, I think their website is just broken, and since they refuse to provide any support, I can&apos;t work around the problem.
		I got them to promise not to send the <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people any of my money if they&apos;re ever able to get the system set up, just in case.
		I&apos;m tired of dealing with these <abbr title="individual retirement account">IRA</abbr> people that won&apos;t even support their own service and deal with the problems they set up themselves in their Web interface.
	</p>
</section>
<section id="clog">
	<h2>Drain clog</h2>
	<p>
		My shower drain&apos;s been clogged for a while, but I haven&apos;t had time to do anything about it.
		Usually, I use this plastic snake thing to clear out hair, and everything returns to normal, but that didn&apos;t work this time.
		I figured a plunger might do better, but I needed to find time to look for an inexpensive, used one.
		However ...
	</p>
	<p>
		My mother&apos;s water heater&apos;s gone out.
		Showering has gotten terrible at her place; it&apos;s just way too cold.
		I figured I&apos;d clean out my shower a bit, then tell her to go ahead and use mine if she liked.
		It turned out she didn&apos;t need the invitation.
		Before I could get things set up, she invited herself to use it.
		No problems there; I don&apos;t mind at all.
		Anyway, being in a hurry now because of her lack of hot water at her place, I splurged and bought a brand new plunger.
		The store was out of the cheap ones, so I had to pay double the price to get one of the next level up.
		It didn&apos;t help though.
		At all.
		In fact, I think it might&apos;ve made the clog somehow worse.
		The tub didn&apos;t seem to visibly drain at all, though I suspect it was just draining even more slowly than before.
	</p>
	<p>
		I wrote to my mother to warn her of the problem.
		She could use my shower all she like, but she&apos;d have water at her feet as she did so.
		She wouldn&apos;t leave well enough alone though.
		She couldn&apos;t just be satisfied to have access to warm water.
		Instead, she insisted I get the manager to come in and fix it.
		First of all, ignoring who the manager even is, I don&apos;t want to go get someone else to unclog my drain for me.
		However, the manager&apos;s been really nice and helped me get furniture and whatnot.
		I don&apos;t feel right sticking them with my clogged drain.
		My mother doesn&apos;t respond well to being told &quot;no&quot; though.
		It doesn&apos;t matter how unsolicited her advice is, she acts like you kicked her in the teeth if yo don&apos;t follow it to the letter.
	</p>
	<p>
		At first, I figured I&apos;d ignore her message.
		If she asked, I&apos;d say I didn&apos;t respond specifically because I wasn&apos;t going with her plan but that she freaks out if told things like that.
		That wouldn&apos;t go over well.
		Then I decided to simply claim the message didn&apos;t come through.
		Too dishonest though.
		After a while, I wrote back with an excuse she couldn&apos;t really deny, but was completely bogus none the less.
		She&apos;d know I wasn&apos;t getting the manager, but since she can&apos;t handle the truth, she wouldn&apos;t be getting that.
		I figured I&apos;d go back to the store tonight and look for a different kind of snake, but before I went out, I filled the bathtub.
		I figured letting the weight of all the water press down on the clog while I was away might shove it through; sort of like how double-filling the toilet bowl forces lesser clogs though.
		I couldn&apos;t just let it be though.
		I had to try the plunger with all that water in there before heading out.
		I noticed this time though that water would spurt out from behind the drain-stopper switch plate as I plunged.
		There was a passage from behind that plate to the drain, so perhaps I could attack the clog with my current snake from this other angle.
		I started removing the plate, but before I could finish, the water started visibly and audibly draining.
		As I continued, the flow sped up.
		When I pulled the stopper out by the switch that operated it, the drain cleared completely.
		The stopper must sit partly-blocking the drain, even when toggled to not block the flow.
		Removing it entirely must&apos;ve widened to passage enough to let the clog get washed away.
		I&apos;m completely at a loss as to what could&apos;ve been blocking my drain though if not the usual hair.
	</p>
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